The Bears had asked U.S. District Judge Joan Gottschall to reconsider her March 2018 decision to keep the lawsuit alive.

Beckman sued the Bears in June 2017 because the team would not let him wear his Packers garb on the sidelines at Soldier Field, where he participated in a 2016 pregame event as part of the Bears' season ticket holders' rewards program. He is a Packers fan, and season ticket holder for both teams.

A hearing on Beckman's motion that would allow him to wear his Packers gear on Sunday is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday in Chicago. The Packers play the Bears at noon Sunday at Soldier Field.

Attorneys for Beckman filed a request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. They argued the Bears are depriving Beckman of his First Amendment right of freedom of expression.

Beckman argued the requirements of the Bears' operating agreement with the Chicago Park District for Soldier Field makes the football team a state actor. In other words, what happens at Soldier Field is a public, not private, activity, as it might be where a team owns its stadium outright.

The Bears counter that the Chicago Park District has no involvement in the rewards program, called the Pregame Warm-up Field Credential Experience, and so it is not subject to state action.

In Tuesday's ruling, the judge said the Bears failed to show that she erred in continuing the suit in March.

"The Bears do not approach the problem of (operating agreement) from a contract interpretation perspective or offer a legal analysis of the Operating Agreement’s language as applied to the facts Beckman alleges; they merely assert, repeatedly, that (operating agreement) gives the (Chicago Park District) no say-so over the PWFCE program," she wrote in her ruling.

On Wednesday, the judge is asked to decide whether Beckman would suffer irreparable harm and whether adequate remedy exists if he is barred from wearing his jersey of choice Sunday while participating in the event, which, once it is over, cannot be done again.

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The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity in Manitowoc have a Green Bay Packers room where they cheer, and 'armchair coach', during every game.
Sarah Kloepping, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin